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Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

revolt.chat

41–50 of 562 posts

Re: Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

#41
post #35

How is open-source supposed to compete without access to Apple's certificates? If you are constantly forced to override the warnings about unsigned software, assuming your system even allows you in the first place, how much friction before less technical users give up? Code signing is good, I like it, I approve, but it is a big obstacle for me personally and others who cannot afford Apple Developer Credentials.

I'm pretty sure I use many open-source projects that have Apple's certificates.

So the only question is communities desire. There is no technical problem here.

Re: Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

#42
post #9

So you have the chance to redesign Discord and you decide to stick with the unicorn-puking emoji-littered eye-scorching UX/UI garbage that Discord is? Interesting.

I mean, if you are looking for a Discord alternative, isn't the design/UX part of what you're looking for? If you want something that is the opposite of what you describe, IRC still exists and works well, but not sure many end-users would call it an alternative to Discord.

> isn't the design/UX part of what you're looking for?

I think this applies to the original target audience, namely gamers, but as a general purpose chat application, e.g. as a support channel for software projects, the UI design of Discord is indeed atrocious.

Of course, this begs the question why these projects adopted Discord in the first place. I guess the lack of a better alternative (that is not self-hosted)?

Re: Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

#44
post #10
post #7

So, how does it compares to matrix/element?

I was wondering whether this was just a matrix client the entire front page. I dont see why you wouldn't utilize the matrix ecosystem with an already usable userbase when trying to recreate discord. If i would want something opensource i would also want something decentralized.

Matrix definitely has problems. I'm not sure if Revolt solves them (and it likely has problems of its own) but I'd say there's room for multiple approaches.

Re: Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

#47
The biggest selling point of Discord is its insane network effects. There are servers for libraries/frameworks, languages, ai/ml, math, whatever you can think of. And a lot of the adjacent ones will cross-link scheduled events and messages from other servers.

I'm really hoping for an alternative. I'm always weary of en-shitification whenever a single platform wins all the users.. like what has happened to Reddit.

Re: Revolt: Open-Source Alternative to Discord

#50

The self hosting instructions aren't that friendly imo.

The backend seems to be a fairly standard Rust project, you basically run `cargo build --release` and then deploy the binary. For the frontend, it seems like a pretty standard frontend project, you install dependencies, then run build command and you have a bunch of website assets you deploy to your server.

Overall, seems pretty standard and easy to deploy. Most complicated would be to also run the various services that are supporting the backend, but again, not overly complicated.

Is there something specific that is missing to be able to self-host this?

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